Social Security
Social Security:
SOCIAL SECURITY (1935) as intended by FDR is an ‘Accrued Benefit’… an ‘Earned Benefit’ where contributors and their dependents are the only ones that have a CLAIM of ENTITLEMENT to receive paid benefits from one or both Social Security Trusts Funds: Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI); and/or Disability Insurance (DI).
The Federal Government is the administrator ‘only’ of these two Trust Funds, they are not the Payer. The PAYER are those who (legally) contributed a portion of their hard earned money each paycheck while gainfully employed (or self-employed) during their life time. Only those that CONTRIBUTED have a ‘claim’ of Entitlement based on their life long contributions.Yet some 80 years after the creation of Social Security in the hands of the Administrator, it has all but been destroyed/distorted, where the future of PAYERS to receive their Accrued/Earned Benefit is in jeopardy, what they and they alone are ENTITLED to.
It’s a different day, a different age… it’s time We The People the PAYER’s, the worker PRIVATIZE’ Social Security to put it back on track where there will be transparency PAYERS can believe in, transparency as is SEEING is BELIEVING. Administrator Duties need to be transferred to a Private Custodian, where the ability of elected officials to pervert Social Security Funds (FICA) is stripped from them. More important, where We The People, the Legal citizens of the United States of American can oversee within parameters a portion our own retirement… like deposit more than the minimum for their OWN future.
Privatization of Social Security needs to occur by 2018. In doing so retirement age for Social Security should remain as is for those who are age 50 and older in 2018. That is at age 65 an individual will receive 80% of what is available to them at full SS retirement age of 67. Younger than 50 but older than 39 have a choice to participate in one or the other or both, and 39 and younger will move into the Privatized Retirement Plan with the choice to leave their balance to date in Social Security while continuing with the Privatized Plan.
I believe the retirement age for Social Security benefits must be changed from 62 to 65 starting January 2020 for all payers who are not 55 years old by January 2020…
The SOCIAL SECURITY ACT of 1935 established the age of 62 as the age a Social Security ‘trust contributor’ could start receiving their EARNED (retirement) BENEFITS. The Social Security MEDICARE AMENDMENT of 1965 recognized that people were living longer and established the age of 65 as the age a Medicare ‘trust contributor’ could start receiving Earned (medical) Benefits. Both are funded from ACCRUED funds paid by CONTRIBUTORS over their work years where the Federal Government is only the Administrator of the trusts, not the payer. The Contributors are the payer with their “ACCRUED – EARNED BENEFIT” that which they, the Contributors have EARNED, their right of ENTITLEMENT to.
It’s been 50 years since Medicare was enacted… 50 years past the time the age for Social Security eligibility should’ve been raised to 65. The can has been kicked to the end of the road where it IS NOT our place to burden our Children, Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren with debt that was funded and gaining interest but now approaching default – it’s our problem to address funding and the abuse of our Trust Funds by Elected Officials. To that means of not burdening future generations due to past and current misappropriation’s; the pending default fly’s in the face of the United States ‘good faith and credit clause’ to repay the Social Security Trust Funds. So much for the “good faith and credit clause” being ignored by those we elect to serve us by considering raising our taxes and growing the “payer” roles by condoning illegal immigration in an attempt to bolster monies in the Trust Fund.
At the same time I believe we should move the Social Security system towards extinction…
Besides being Unconstitutional it’s morally and ethically bankrupt but more so, demoralizing to contributors young and old. Raising the Social Security entitlement age to 65 will reduce the number of people who qualify and the length of time they collect benefits resulting in less out-flow of money from both Trust Funds, Social Security and Medicare, again Social Security is in trouble today because we have voted for Representatives who borrowed money and issued ‘Special U.S. Government Securities’ under the “good faith and credit clause”…. They have taken money from the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for entitlements such as the war on poverty with no idea where the money will come from to repay their ‘good faith-credit’ promise.
*Raising taxes is a Political Trap, a gimmick of transferring their the law makers indiscretions, their burden onto Americans who happen to earn more than the now taxed limit which is nothing more than a Band-Aid on a broken system. Politicians raising taxes are either without the Character or Ideas needed to FIX their problem rather than kicking the can down the road for Our Children & Grandchildren.
*The Treasury shall immediately make good on the ‘full trust and credit clause’ and REDEEM (call) all Social Security Government ‘Special’ Securities and DEPOSIT the cash within the Social Security Trust Fund.
The practice of politicians being able to commit excess Social Security Trust Funds to the “General Federal Budget” in exchange for ‘Special Government Securities’, needs to Cease and Desist immediately. Any excess Social Security funds and the simple interest it (could have) produced is for the benefit of contributing payers. Only legitimate ‘payers’ are entitled’ to Social Security Trust Funds that they EARNED/ACCRUED, non payers are not entitled to any monies from Social Security.
FDR signed the Social Security Act in 1935 as one of his “New Deal” programs where he demanded that it was to be fully self-supporting without any general revenue funding. LBJ signed the Social Security Medicare Amendment in 1966 under his ‘Great Society’ programs that followed on the heels of JFK’s ‘New Frontier’ objectives. Thanks to the Johnson administration and his Great Society, Social Security is going broke now. It’s time to stop the madness and privatize Social Security. http://www.ssa.gov/history/1960.html……. http://www.fedsmith.com/2014/05/08/did-lyndon-johnson-steal-from-the-social-security-trust-fund/ ….. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society….. http://misdtx.schoolwires.com/cms/lib/tx21000394/centricity/domain/112/ch23a.pdf…..)
*No Social Security Funds will be used to fund any other expenditure of the Federal Government!
In the event of future surpluses the excess monies need to be held by the Treasury in liquid interest bearing assets for the benefit of the SS Trust Funds payers. Additionally the Social Security Administration needs to clean up their language aka legalease on their site that describes the various functions of themselves. http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/describeoasi.html are ‘Special U.S. Government Securities’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Trust_Fund…)
Taxing Social Security benefits is DOUBLE JEOPARDY.
Immediately the Federal Government needs to stop taxing Social Security payments to qualified entitled Payees’ receiving benefits as they have already paid taxes on their contributions. A Payer paying a second tax is double jeopardy, is not the Social Security Tax an after tax contribution much like a Roth IRA where interest gains are not taxable?
* Disability Insurance (DI) for workers is the responsibility of their employer’s insurance!
Disability Insurance (DI) is currently being toyed with by Congress to reduce benefits by 20% which does nothing to reduce its demise. In any event when you’re hurt on the job, it should be the insurer who has to pay the benefits to you for as long as you’re disabled aka Workers Compensation. Also, if an injury results in a permanent disability without any possibility of returnning to work, the company and the Workers Compensation Insurance carrier are the ones responsible for your income until the injured reaches the eligibility age to receive Social Security – again that which should be 65 the same age as Medicare. DI for the injured should be removed from Social Security and returned to the Health & Welfare Department as Disability was never intended to be a benefit paid out by Social Security. In the recent past the DI Trust fund has been used multiple times to fund shortages within the SS Trust Fund – hard to kick a can that is so dented it can’t stand up on its own. http://www.offthechartsblog.org/house-rule-could-hurt-vulnerable-disability-beneficiaries/
To this end: when the disabled worker reaches the age of retirement, any difference between what he would have gotten and what he gets will be made up by Workers Compensation and ‘The Company’ they worked for when injured. They are the responsible entities for this situation, not the Federal Government or the Social Security System or the taxpayer. As a safety, the injured will be guaranteed all entitled monies through a bond or other type of security in case the insurance or business dissolves, which is a more appropriate role of the Federal Government as ‘Administrator’ not ‘Payer’.
*For those born disabled or disabled for any reason other than injured on the job!
We must set up a system through the private insurance sector, such as if injured in an auto or accident at home or private property, then your private coverage would take care of it in the same manner as previously mentioned, so the cost will be spread out through millions, as insurance is meant to work. If born disabled there’d be a program set up to take care of that situation as well, it’s time we stop allowing the Insurance Companies to reap high profits at the expense of our retirements, injuries and accidents of birth, we pay them for coverage and it’s time they pay us as they do with any other accident we cover, and once again the cost would be spread over millions of the insured.
*We must set up a mandatory private Social Security system for those under age 45!
To ultimately fix the abuse of Social Security and other Trust Funds by “our elected officials” a private system with mandatory ‘minimum’ participation needs to be established for everyone 45 years and younger. The new benefit retirement plan can be modeled after a ROTH IRA Plan where contributions are after tax, to include additional money to a maximum annual allowed thereby making disbursements tax exempt. To that end the required employers’ contribution on behalf of their employees will be tax exempt to the employee on payment into the Plan and upon withdrawal during retirement. A small percentage of the “Plan” contributions need’ to be paid into a Federal Retirement Default Insurance Trust, with no possibility of politicians getting their hands on surplus/excess monies to insure workers against ‘private’ fund default.
Privatizing retirement will make sure it will be there for all Americans and that their retirement funds will never be shouldered by others as a result of poor planning or bad management of the Federal Government. This plan will also keep the government out of our lives, and take away the control they now have over seniors due to the constant threat of lack of funds for Social Security because of the nation’s debt or lack of a budget.
Such a plan will give future generations the freedom our seniors have not enjoyed for decades as well as, allowing your ACCRUED – EARNED balances to pass onto your spouse or other designated heir upon death. Unlike the system we now have which enslaves a surviving spouse to the Federal Government to either stay single or lie to them to continue getting benefits. It’s yours, you earned it, you’re ENTITLED to do with it what you want without Federal intrusion or like now defaulting what’s yours to others.
The retirement age for the younger generation will be their choice to decide depending on whether they decide to put more into the system than the minimum required. If they do, they’ll reap either a larger benefit at the end or earlier retirement which would allow for more jobs to those still coming up in future generations. However, the main goal is to stop the federal government from controlling our lives, through the Social Security system as we all know it.
*Privatizing is the best way out and it’s Constitutional...
It may be a shock to many, however, it is time we as Americans require a real solution to the problem that faces all of us and our children and grandchildren. I don’t believe we have any leaders willing to come up with real solutions. I paid into Social Security from 1962; the system must be fixed so our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews etc. don’t have to depend on a government benefit – which has proven itself ineffectual – for their future.
Those yet to be born; “here’s one solution: when a child is born, give the child a birth certificate, an electronic medical record, and a health savings account plus a Roth for Retirement to which money can be contributed to with after tax – from the time you’re born ’til the time you die. When you die, you can pass it on to your family members as it was ACCRUED with after tax payments so there’s nobody talking “”TAXES”” or death panels.
For the truly indigent, as we can as spoken to earlier provide assistance to maintain a reasonable standard of living Instead of sending all this money to some you know….. just some of my ideas for real solutions to fix the Social Security bureaucracy, let’s put it into the HANDS of We The People so they will have some control over their own health care.
If any of you have an ideas you believe will work, don’t hesitate to share it with me or my staff. Please remember we’re talking about a fix with total control and interest that is compounding over the years. Please just do the math. Even at 3% we come out ahead and FREE.
God Bless You All; Clair Van Steenwyk
Originally posted by Van on 10/1/2011